Just seen on sky news that prisoners are to get the vote. It has been decreed by Europe and therefore it becomes law. If we do not obey the Europe then the government [we the taxpayer] would be fined hundreds of millions of pounds. Creeping control by the EU. Parliament will become redundant in the next 10 years IMHO.

The Council have pointed out that the UK is now out of step with many other countries. Eighteen European countries have no restrictions on prisoners voting while in France and Germany a decision to disenfranchise a prisoner is left to the courts. In Australia and New Zealand the length of a prisoners sentence determines their right to vote. Other countries where prisoners have the right to vote include South Africa, Poland, and Canada.
The continued pressure from Europe may finally make a difference to government policy, and the threat of compensation claims will focus minds. However, a change to the law may not be popular with the public, and the Coalition Government may choose to save its energy for more pressing concerns, such as the economy.

There are two issues here: the issue of sovereignty and the question of whether we believe that prisoners should have the vote.

On that second issue, if a prisoner is to be released and we want him/her to become a good member of our society then it must be right that we allow him or her to shape that society through participation in the democratic process.

If you read the story, this was a decision of the European Court of Human Rights, which is:

1. Not part of the EU
2. Something we signed up to after WWII not in 1973
3. Covers Switzerland, Norway, Turkey and plenty of non-EU countries
4. Works on the basis of a Convention on Human Rights drafted by English lawyers after the second world war
5. Is not part of the EU at all in any way.

I don't have a problem with the Court of Human Rights, because I think human rights are a good idea, but if you're worried about national democracy it's actually less democratic than the EU, since EU decisions are taken by a Council of Ministers (all elected Prime Ministers, including ours) and a European Parliament (also elected, every five years, by us). The ECHR on the other hand has a group of unelected judges appointed by the different countries which are part of it.

Calm down, calm down. It's nothing to do with the EU. It's the European Court of Human Rights. They are not connected. We are signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights (which was British drafted), which is an international treaty, not an instrument of the European Union.

There are two issues here: the issue of sovereignty and the question of whether we believe that prisoners should have the vote.

On that second issue, if a prisoner is to be released and we want him/her to become a good member of our society then it must be right that we allow him or her to shape that society through participation in the democratic process.

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Why must it be right? By putting someone in prison, we're not, by definition, allowing them to participate in society - that's the point.

I'm talking about rehabilitation. Preparing him for life on the outside. Feeling part of society, willing and able to contribute. Not feeling like a total outsider upon whom society has turned it's back.

I'm talking about rehabilitation. Preparing him for life on the outside. Feeling part of society, willing and able to contribute. Not feeling like a total outsider upon whom society has turned it's back.

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The criminal is the one who places himself (or herself) out of society by their own voluntary actions. No one forces them to commit crimes, the criminal doesn't worry about the human rights of his victims when he is robbing/raping/murdering etc. THEY are the ones who turn their backs on society with their criminal actions.

Rehabilitation clearly doesn't work anyway as the amount of rapes and murders committed by early released prisoners points out.

Hanging works.... it is 100% effective at preventing reoffending.

What we will see in future is the unedifying spectacle of prospective MP's scrabbling around for the prison vote in their constituencies and no doubt making grubby little promises to their fellow criminal scum.

On another note.... it is also another attack on our democracy by the unaccountable and unelected foreign courts who have no genuine legal rights to tell us how to run our country.

I'm talking about rehabilitation. Preparing him for life on the outside. Feeling part of society, willing and able to contribute. Not feeling like a total outsider upon whom society has turned it's back.

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Why?

The point that is being made and the one I agree with is the fact that by breaking the law of the society in which you live, you forfeit the rights enjoyed by that society. Voting being one of them. I understand the need to rehabilitate prisoners but why does this involve allowing them the vote? Why should my life be influenced by people who hold no regard for the law (yeah yeah politicians tish tish!)? I want to see prisoners getting less rights not more!